Ongoing Student Protest in Puerto Rico

Yesterday, I proposed that the federal government should guarantee the right to post-secondary education. Most of my reasoning also applies to public education funding more generally, and especially to efforts to make public education more affordable. One such effort is the ongoing protest against the Puerto Rican government’s decision to cut funding to the University of Puerto Rico and raise tuition. The students at the university have been on strike since April 21st.

Access to Higher Education Should Be a Federal Guarantee

Education is a fundamental human right, without which neither a large-scale democracy nor a large-scale economy can function. And higher education is becoming increasingly expensive, making it inaccessible to many. While it can be viewed as an investment which will pay off in the long run, not everybody has the capital on hand for that investment to seem worthwhile. As bachelor’s degrees become more and more essential to numerous forms of economic and political participation, the federal government has a responsibility to guarantee universal access to higher education in the United States.